Integration: camera blocking imperfections

The study will go over a new concept that I learned from work about a digital, moving camera. Before we go into it, let’s look at two fully digital shots from The BFG:

While the shots do have informative and appealing blocking, there is a level of integration missing: camera movement imperfections. When cameras are operated by humans on cranes, there are subtle imperfections that sell photorealism because the audience is unconsciously aware that the camera is being operated by a real person in that scene. Adding this subtle level of realism to digital shots can help integrate the scene a few percent closer to being believable.

An example from Empire of the Sun:

I created a digital representation of the same camera move in 3D to make the camera jitter easier to read:

And I removed the camera jitter to show how this same camera movement becomes “CG“, too perfect and not fully believable:

The next example is from Hook:

Exact replication of camera in shot above with jitter:

Jitter and imperfections removed:

While the examples above are from more classic movies, this is prevalent in modern movies as well. Notice how, in the dolly shot below, the camera has slight follow-through animation as it hits the end of its platform and slightly rocks within its final position. Look at the bottom of screen right:

Closer look at follow-through movement on dolly:

Ever since I learned this concept at work, I can’t stop noticing this everywhere from High School Musical 3 to Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s so slight and goes unnoticed but is felt by the audience, especially when absent in CGI. Happy studying!